It was another memorable Irvine sports season in 2012

Each year about this time, Brent Shaver and I look back at what's happened and it's always amazing to see the accomplishments of the individuals and teams in Irvine.

Of course, we can only pick the top 10. That list will appear in Saturday's Irvine World News.

But there were many others that stood out.

Here are some of them from my personal collection:

---Oklahoma City basketball coach Scott Brooks visited Orange County during the Scott Brooks UCI Golf Tournament and talked about the Thunder's chances of winning the NBA title.

---Former Woodbridge boys basketball coach Bill Shannon returned to honor current coach John Halagan for Halagan's 20-year coaching career. The Warriors went on to win the league title.

---There were some memorable high school football games and fantastic finishes in the Pacific Coast League and Woodbridge's Austin DeFreitas rushed for a school record 309 yards in one game.

Northwood's football team captured the Dennis Toohey Fence Post Trophy.

---Players from Woodbridge's 1987 state championship team got together for a 30-year reunion. Shannon and former Warrior star Adam Keefe were back in town for that.

---There were tough moments too. We watched as Irvine football coach Erik Terry tried to console his players after a season-ending loss denied the Vaqueros a trip to the CIF playoffs. Terry's players had done much on and off the field before that to make their coach proud.

Those are just a few. But it has been quite a season and we expect many more exciting events in 2013.

We look forward to covering them in our new-look Irvine World News.

BIG WEST OPENER

It will be interesting to see how UC Irvine's men's basketball team does in Big West Conference play.

The Anteaters open the season Saturday, hosting UC Davis at 7 p.m. at the Bren Center.

UCI is 6-7 overall while UC Davis is 4-7.

Cal State Northridge (9-5) brings the best record into conference play. Cal State Fullerton and Hawaii are 6-5 and Pacific is 6-6.